Those patients that are taken to hospitals are frequently subject to abuse and unorthodox treatments such as electro-shock therapy. At traditional centers, healers often recite the Koran into patients' ears, force feed them herbal concoctions and subject them to vigorous, even violent massages that result in painful, extensive bruising, according to HRW.
"The few facilities and services that do exist often do not respect the basic human rights of people with psychosocial disabilities and greatly contribute to the abuses against them," HRW said. The situation can often be only a slight improvement on being confined at home.
"People are routinely force to sleep, eat, urinate, and defecate in the same space," Shaa said.
Government response
In 2014, the Indonesian parliament passed the Mental Health Act to improve the dire state of mental health services in the country. Next month, Indonesian President Joko Widodo is expected to sign the Rights of persons with Disabilities Bill, designed to protect and promote the rights of those with disabilities. While HRW is supportive of the government's desire to promote mental health and end the practice of home confinement, it warned that policies must be fully implemented on the ground. That means affording basic and equal rights to a person with psychosocial disabilities or mental health conditions, according to HRW.
"The thought that someone has been living in their own excrement and urine for 15 years in a locked room, isolated and not given any care whatsoever is just horrifying," Sharma said.
"So many people told me, 'This is like living in hell.' It really is.